By PHILIP E. REHARD

The Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet will make its first
appearance next month in UB’s annual Slee/Beethoven String
Quartet Cycle, performing the first three concerts of this
season’s cycle — the 58th year the Department of Music
has presented the complete string quartets of Beethoven.

The concerts will take place at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14 and Feb. 15,
and at 3 p.m. on Feb. 16 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North
Campus.

The Parker Quartet also will conduct a master class from 11 a.m.
to 1p.m. Feb. 15 in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North
Campus. The class is free and open to the public.

Advance tickets for the concerts are $12 for the general public;
$9 for UB faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens; and $5 for
students. At the door, tickets are $20, $15 and
$8. Tickets can be obtained by calling the Slee Hall box
office at (716) 645-2921, in person at the Center for the Arts box
office, or online at tickets.com.

The UB Alumni Association will host a pre-concert reception
before the opening concert on Feb. 14. Advance registration is
required; space is limited. Call 645-2921 to make reception
reservations.

Formed in 2002, the Parker Quartet has quickly distinguished
itself as one of the pre-eminent ensembles of its generation, with
The New York Times hailing the quartet as
“something extraordinary” and the Boston
Globe praising the group’s “pinpoint precision and
spectacular sense of urgency.”

The quartet — featuring Daniel Chong and Ying Xue,
violins; Jessica Bodner, viola; and Kee-Hyun Kim, cello —
began touring on the international circuit after winning the
Concert Artists Guild Competition, as well as the Grand Prix and
Mozart Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet
Competition in France. Chamber Music America awarded the quartet
the prestigious biennial Cleveland Quartet Award for the 2009-11
seasons.

Beginning in fall 2014, quartet members will join the faculty of
Harvard University’s Department of Music as Blodgett
Artists-in-Residence.